


But Snow Fun Without You

by Anasten27



Series: Of Windy Days at the Ocean [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gen, How Do I Tag, If I have to fill this ship tag all on my own I will, One-Sided Crush, Ventus is very nervous, i am new here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-12 13:11:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18011546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anasten27/pseuds/Anasten27
Summary: "Ready to give it a try yet?" Ven said tilting his head towards the pond.She shook her head. "No, I think I'll just stay here.""Okay, then." He shrugged, took a handful of snow and put it on her foot. He kept doing that, burying her shoes under it even when she shook it off."Ven... what are you even doing?" She shook her shoe again, but he put more snow on it."Well, since you're obviously planning on staying here all day it will start snowing eventually. When that happens you'll start getting covered in snow because you aren’t moving from this spot. So I thought it wouldn't hurt to start the process a bit earlier and cover you myself!" He smiled innocently while putting another handful over her ice skate."You stop that now or the next thing buried here will be your face" she threatened with a smirk.In which Ventus and Kairi spend some time together in the snow, ice skating and haveing fun, (except Ventus is a wreck on the inside the whole time).





	But Snow Fun Without You

**Author's Note:**

> Guess what? I like this ship so I will write about it as much as I want! It has room for wholesome content and also lots of angst and one-sided feels!
> 
> Also! Thanks again to Taliax for Beta reading!
> 
> Enjoy!

Ah! Winter... The season where the days were shorter and the weather colder. The season where you could make snowmen with funny hats, go skiing, and play snowball fights. That is... If you had any snow at all.

The Destiny Islands were not a place where you could enjoy that sort of activity, since the weather was always so warm and it managed to stay at least a little bit like that even in winter. The most you had to put on was a sweater and you were free to go outside. There had been a couple of times where they had been lucky enough to witness the rain coming down as snowflakes instead of water, but that had been years ago.

Kairi had been looking out her bedroom window while sitting on her bed, wondering if it would snow that year, when she heard a knock on her door. She turned her head saying it was open. Her father was there, sticking his head through the crack. He told her Riku was at the door and that he wanted to see her.

Curious about the reason for his visit she got up and headed outside. She opened her front door and was greeted by her best friend shoving something on her head. She took it off and realized it was a wool hat, with a cute kitten design on the front. She looked up at him curious, noticing the two pairs of ice skates on his hands.

He smiled and lifted them up. "Guess who invited us to go skating?"

 

The Land of Departure was a cool place. Literally. Unlike the Islands, the climate here was pretty balanced, so they could have hot summers and chill winters. And right now, the place was covered in snow.

Kairi looked at the scene before her in awe. She had only seen real snow twice when she was little and had dreamed of seeing it once again. Now it was a reality and she was astonished by the beauty of it all. Riku strolled through the snow to meet up with their hosts.

They were greeted by Terra, Aqua and Ventus, who waved at them from beside a frozen pond near the edge of the forest. Roxas and Xion were at the opposite side of it, making a snowman together, putting as many sticks as they could find on its head. Meanwhile Axel was trying very hard not to fall backwards on his butt while skating on the pond. Naminé, Isa, Hayner, Pence and Olette had also been invited, but had declined the offer due to having other plans.

Riku got to the trio first and started up a conversation with them, but Kairi stayed back, still taking in the sight of the place. 

Ven glanced back at the redhead and excused himself. He walked over to her with a big smile and pink tinted cheeks that were definitely like that because of the cold.

"Hey! It's good to see you, Kairi!" He beamed at her and then looked up "I like your hat."

She reached up to touch it, forgetting for a moment it was even there. "Thanks. It's nice to see you too."

"So... Are you coming along to the pond?" He started walking, but stopped on his tracks not long after. "Oh, wait! Did you bring ice skates?"

"Yes, I did. Well, Riku brought them for us both. I don't think I'll be using them, though." She followed after him, her hands behind her back.

"How come?" He tilted his head and kept walking beside her.

"I don't know how to skate."

"Oh! Well that's easily fixed! You just gotta get out there and practice. You'll be a pro in no time!" He raised a fist in celebration as if she had already learned everything and was the best one out in the field.

She giggled slightly at that. "No thanks. I don't feel much like falling today."

"Aw, come on!" He protested, turning around in front of her, walking backwards. "I promise it'll be fun. I can teach you if you want."

"Alright, maybe I'll try it later," she conceded. "Now turn around before you fall and hurt yourself."

"What? No way, I'm an expert at this! I'm not gonna-" he tripped on a rock and hit the snow with a soft 'fwomp'. "fall..."

She leaned over him with a smirk, her short red hair framing her face. "Well, Mister 'Expert', looks like you've fallen to me."

'More like for you...' He thought and shook his head. "Oh, well. Happens to the best of us." He started moving his arms and legs up and down on the soft floor, creating a snow angel. He got up to admire his creation, resting his hands on his hips. He got moving again after a moment. "Come on, let's go join the others."

 

It had been an hour already since their arrival. Roxas and Xion had finished their snowman, which turned out to be a Snow-Axel with crazy hair made of sticks and two tiny pebbles under its eyes to mimic the upside-down tears he used to have. Now they were having a snowball fight against Terra and Axel, with the latter team winning by far.

Aqua was on the pond. She was skating with such finesse and elegance that you'd probably think she was a professional who made a living out of it. She twisted and turned making patterns on the ice, sometimes even jumping on the air to then land perfectly and continue with her improvised dance.

Ventus wasn't too bad himself. He didn't jump or make fancy tricks, but he could go fast without falling or stumbling. He skated with such speed that sometimes he had to skid to turn around and continue.

Meanwhile, Riku was doing his best at the edge of the pond. He was barely moving forward, but at least he hadn't fallen once.

Kairi, on the other hand, hadn't tried skating yet. She had put on her ice skates, but decided she didn't want to go for it yet. She did make a tiny snowman though. With two big eyes made of rocks and a smile made with a thin twig. She had also added some sticks in its head to give it spiky hair.

She looked out from her seat on a log at the edge of the frozen water. She had had the opportunity to chat with everyone earlier. They had told jokes, laughed together, and talked about the recent events in their lives.

Riku told everyone how his swimming team had decided to hold a competition between members and he had come out second. Axel talked about Xion and Roxas' performance on the last struggle match in Twilight Town, where Xion had come out victorious. Aqua had described how they saved a hurt bird they found a few weeks ago, how Ventus had named it Kevin, and how they later found out that Kevin was actually a girl.

Kairi had been remembering those conversations while looking at Aqua skating, so she got startled when someone sat down beside her. Messy blond hair and sparkling blue eyes met her with a warm smile in the middle of all that snow.

"Ready to give it a try yet?" Ven said tilting his head towards the pond.

She shook her head. "No, I think I'll just stay here."

"Okay, then." He shrugged, took a handful of snow and put it on her foot. He kept doing that, burying her shoes under it even when she shook it off.

"Ven... what are you even doing?" She shook her shoe again, but he put more snow on it.

"Well, since you're obviously planning on staying here all day it will start snowing eventually. When that happens you'll start getting covered in snow because you aren’t moving from this spot. So I thought it wouldn't hurt to start the process a bit earlier and cover you myself!" He smiled innocently while putting another handful over her ice skate.

"You stop that now or the next thing buried here will be your face" she threatened with a smirk.

He raised his fist slowly, not breaking eye contact with her... And put more snow over the pile he had created. She leapt off the log with what could be described as a battle cry and pushed him down on the snow, taking a fistful of it and pressing it to his face. He squirmed trying to get her off of him and laughed while doing his best to avoid her hand, accidentally getting some in his mouth and spitting it out to the side. He took hold of her hands, wrestling with them and doing everything in his power to keep her attacks away from him.

They both got tired after a while and started laughing together as Kairi collapsed beside him, both of them trying to regain their breath. They looked at each other smiling. She threw the last bit of snow at his face and looked up at the clouded sky.

They both had flushed faces from the fight, but he could swear he felt on fire even with all the cold surrounding him. He took more snow and shoved it on his face.

"Alright you win." She sat up and looked back at him. "Let's go skate."

 

This was way harder than she expected. She hadn't fallen yet because Ventus was there to help her stabilize herself when she lost balance. Had she been alone, she would've been on the floor a long time ago, probably staying there for the rest of the day. But she wasn't giving up! Not when Ven had so much faith in her yet.

"Okay, now remember to lean on the inside edge of the skate while you angle your foot outwards. Yeah, like that! Now push to the side- wait, keep your knees bent... Alright, now try again." He was being so patient with her that she started to wonder where he had gotten that from. She hoped she wasn't being too hard to deal with.

She pushed with her right foot to the side like he had instructed and leaned on her left, before righting herself with both feet on the ice. She went forward without losing her balance.

"Look, Ven! I'm doing it!" she exclaimed in a high-pitched voice. He laughed at how excited she sounded.

"You're doing great, Kairi! Now shift your balance over to your right and push with your left." He slid on beside her as she prepared to propel herself forwards again.

She shifted her weight wrong and lost her footing. She would’ve fallen forward had Ven not been there. He slid up in front of her and took both of her hands, helping her right back up.

"Thanks," she smiled sheepishly.

"No problem." An idea popped up in his mind. "Hey! How about you use me for support? That way you can practice your glide without the fear of falling at any moment!" 

"Is that okay with you?" She asked unsure.

"Of course! Come on, try again now." He encouraged her by squeezing her hands a bit and slowly moving backwards.

"Alright, let's do this!" She tried pushing forward with her left as she leaned her body to the right, she got both feet down and then pushed with her right this time. She started gliding pretty decently. She smiled up at the blond boy. He smiled back, but looked away after moment.

They continued like that for a while, until she was confident enough to try on her own. But before he let her go he stopped dead in his tracks and smiled mischievously at her. He spun them around, staying linked through their hands as they slid in circles through the pond. She yelped in surprise at his shenanigans, but started laughing through the rest of their little dance. Once the momentum died down he finally let her go and chuckled with her.

"That was so fun!" 

"I'm glad you enjoyed it." His smile fell a bit. "Do you want to go practice by yourself now?"

"Yeah, I'd like that. Can't get better if I don't take off the training wheels," she shrugged. "But thanks for all your help, Ven."

He waved a hand through the air. "Don't mention it. And if you need any more help, I'll be around."

"I'll keep that in mind, thanks," she smiled. He nodded and skated away.

When he was enough feet away he put his hands on his face. Was he red? He felt like he was burning. Had she noticed? He hoped she hadn't. Oh gosh, his legs felt like they were giving out bellow him. He had to act cool though, she could still see him from here. Did she really enjoy his company? He could swear his stomach felt filled with a whole lot of butterflies. His heartbeat was through the roof. He wasn't having a heart attack, right? Could he get one at this age? Goodness gracious, he needed to lay down for a second.

While Ventus panicked on the other side of the pond, Kairi turned around and started gliding away to practice some more.

She slid up to her best friend who was still having some trouble just staying still on his own two feet.

"Need some help, Riku?" She asked.

He looked up at her, surprised. "You can help me?" 

"Yup." She nodded. "Ven taught me how to skate and I've been practicing a bit. I think I can help you out for now." She put one hand on her hip. "So? What do you say?"

"Sure!"

 

After another couple hours, almost everyone was skating over on the pond. Riku had learned fairly quickly how to glide, thanking Kairi for all her help. Terra and Aqua had taken to teaching Axel, Xion and Roxas. That had gone as good as one could expect, with Axel goofing around and distracting his friends every once in a while, making them all laugh and lose their focus and balance. Kairi was sliding all over the place, enjoying herself.

Meanwhile, Ventus was at the edge of the frozen water. Sitting on the snow. Freezing his butt off. Hoping he would cool down soon enough. 

He wished there was a spell to make his dumb crush go away, it would make everything so much easier. It's not like he could act on it either. It hadn't even been a complete year since... What happened to Sora. He knew she still loved him, even if he was gone now. And the nature of the start of his feelings wasn't even normal either! Sure, now that he knew her better he could say (not out loud, of course) with confidence he really actually liked her a lot, that these were in fact his feelings and not anyone else's, but it still didn't feel right to tell anyone.

He felt like a mess. He put his head on his hands and sighed dejectedly. He felt something touch his shoulder. He looked up to see Aqua kneeling in front of him with a worried look on her face.

"What's wrong, Ven? Are you feeling sick? Do you need to get back to the castle?" Great, he had accidentally caught her attention with all his moping. Good job, Ventus!

"No, I'm fine, don't worry. Just a bit tired is all." He lied and smiled.

She wasn't convinced by that. "Are you sure? You know you can tell me and Terra anything that's troubling you..." She looked at him softly, encouraging him to open up to her.

He was almost tempted to tell her for a second, but decided against it. Maybe if he waited long enough, his feelings would slowly disappear. Everything would be forgotten and he would look back on himself and say 'wow, I was making such a big deal out of something that would go away so soon! What a dummy I was!'...

Who was he kidding. He would die over this. He would die because he was stupid and he didn't talk about his feelings with anyone. He would implode because of it and that would be the end him. Kaboom!

He sighed and scratched the back of his neck. He should stop being so stubborn. He looked his friend in the eye.

"Can we talk later? I may have a little problem, but I don't wanna get into it yet. At least not when all our friends are here."

"Of course. I understand." She got up and offered her hand to him. "Wanna go skate one last time? We're going back inside to eat soon."

He smiled and took her hand.

 

They were all inside the castle some time later drinking hot cocoa, eating cookies and sandwiches the trio had prepared. Everyone was chatting lively with each other, talking about the things they learned, seeing who had been the one to fall more times, laughing at dumb snow puns.

Looking around him, Ven thought these were the best friends he could ask for and that he wouldn't trade them from the worlds.

Axel got up from his seat, stretching his arms over his head. "Well! This has been fun. Thanks for the invitation and for the food. But I think it's time we leave."

Roxas and Xion protested. She looked at him with puppy dog eyes. "Can't we stay a bit longer, please?"

"Nope. If we leave any later, you guys will be awake past your bedtime. Now we can't have that happening, can we?"

"We don't have a set bedtime, though." Roxas said puzzled.

"Yeah you do, I've just never told you guys. Now start saying goodbye." He gently pushed their backs forward.

The three of them said their goodbyes and left soon after. Now only Riku and Kairi remained. The silver haired boy started talking with Terra about some fighting techniques he wanted to learn, while Aqua chimed in with some of her own and some extra questions about his. 

The redhead looked at Ven. She smiled and he could swear his heart skipped not just one, but seven thousand beats.

"I had a lot of fun today! Thanks for teaching me how to glide and being so patient. I hope I can come back again and skate some more with you guys."

"No problem, it was my pleasure! And I hope you come back to visit again soon too." His face turned warm, so he hid it behind his cup of cocoa as he took a long sip.

"So how'd you learn to ice skate?" She asked and leaned forward, closer to him, resting her chin on her hands.

"Oh! Master Eraqus taught us years ago. Or at least he taught me," he shrugged. "Terra and Aqua already knew how to do it by the time I arrived. But they have definitely improved a lot over the years!"

"He sounds like a great teacher."

"He was..." He smiled fondly at the memory of him, a bit sad that he was gone.

She spoke softly. "Tell me more about him. What else did he teach you?"

"Well... He taught me practically everything I know, it's hard to think where to start..." He sighed.

"What's the first thing you remember?"

"Hm... This one time..."

 

He talked about his Master, while she listened intently and made questions from time to time. He told her about the great fun they had, the times he would scold him for something bad he had done, the times where he would amaze him with his wisdom. 

"So, that summer I was trying to learn a wind spell called Cyclone. I think I aimed wrong, because I accidentally got hauled up into the air so high that I ended up falling on top of a tree." He chuckled at the memory. "Master Eraqus had to take me down with his own spell after that."

"Did you get hurt?"

"Not much. Just scraped my arms and legs a bit with the branches, nothing serious." He waved his hand dismissively. "Oh! Let me tell you about what happened when he was teaching me how to recognize hazardous plants!"

 

He told her most of the stories he could remember, until it was time for her to go.

"Your Master was a very good man," she said.

"Yeah. He wasn't perfect, but he had the best intentions. Then again, nobody's perfect," he shrugged with a small smile on his face.

She nodded and made a sound of agreement before getting up from her seat. "This was great. I loved spending time with you."

"Me too. Hope to see you again soon..."

She hugged him goodbye (and he felt like he was exploding) and did the same with his two friends. Riku said his goodbyes as well and they both left through the door while waving.

Ven waved back and left his hand in the air even after she was gone. Terra started to pick the cups up to take them back to the kitchen. Aqua stood beside the blond and put her hand on his shoulder as he lowered his own.

"Do you want to talk now?" She asked in a quiet voice.

"Aqua..." He whispered with a pained expression. "I think I've got it bad..."


End file.
